Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc.,
owner of the Four Seasons in Washington, plans to double
earnings within three years, helped by cost cuts and a travel
recovery, the company’s chief executive officer said today.

“We could potentially double our Ebitda, certainly in the
next two to three years, through margin enhancements and rising
demand,” CEO Laurence Geller said in a telephone interview.
Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization, is a measure of profitability used by hotels.

Strategic Hotels has stakes in 17 properties including the
Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona. The real estate
investment trust, based in Chicago, has been boosting margins by
cutting staff and selling off its European properties to focus
on North America, Geller said.

“I still think there’s reengineering at the managerial
levels,” Geller said. “Nothing is sacred. It’ll be hard to cut
out any more staff at the customer interface, but those that sit
at desks in Hermes ties are attackable.”

The REIT, which as of midyear had $1.29 billion in debt
maturing from March 2011 through June 2017, last month agreed to
sell the InterContinental Prague for about 110.6 million euros
($152.9 million). A year ago, Strategic Hotels sold the Four
Seasons Mexico City, with net proceeds of $52.2 million.

The company is focusing on growth in metropolitan markets
in North America, including New York and Boston, Geller said.
The company plans to sell its three remaining European
properties, in Hamburg, London and Paris, “when the time is
right,” he said.

Loans Maturing

Three of the company’s properties, the Hotel del Coronado
in San Diego, the Fairmont Scottsdale and the InterContinental
Miami, have loans with maturities next year. Strategic Hotels is
in talks to extend or refinance the debt.

“The Coronado is a complex, challenging asset,” Geller
said. “I don’t know if you’ll see it on a default list, but I
think it’s in everybody’s interest to restructure.”

The property in Scottsdale has been hurt by an oversupply
of hotels in the area, he said.

“I don’t think we’d give up on it at the moment,” Geller
said. “It’s cash-flow positive. But walking away is always an
option at a non-recourse property.”

Strategic Hotels climbed 10 cents, or 2.4 percent, to $4.35
in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 2:48 p.m.,
giving the company a market value of $658 million. The shares
rose 88 percent in the 12 months through yesterday.